parsley under attack

[saadiah tariq]

i thought herbs are tough in terms of pests, my parsley pots were giving handful supply every other day , suddenly these pests attached and extended to few plants of salvia , gazinia and mums. please identify the pests. i ve sprayed the flowering plants with imidacloprid 20% (as prescribed by the local nursery wala) and seems they are recovering. i dont want to spray parsley, kindly help if garlic spray can help.if it does; how? does it act like systemic as it is difficult to spray under the leaves.more over if i have to spray imidacloprid after how many days of spraying i can use it in cooking.

[Izhar]

spray them with diluted soap solution.. they will be gone

[saadiah tariq]

i tried it on gazinia for one week but to no avail.

[Izhar]

use washing powder solution then.. my neighbours guava tree was severely infested with these (these are aphids by the way) and they just washed them with soap water for 2-3 days, all are now clean...

[saadiah tariq]

i ll give it a try again insha allah . thanks once again for such a qiuck reply which saved my one day. GOD BLESS YOU.

[M Farooq]

It was a good decision of yours to avoid pesticides on edible plants. Using laundry detergents is a good idea but it might burn the delicate leaves of parsley. Another idea which some people follow here, which is quite gentle as well, is to boil two whole garlic bulbs (10-20 crushed cloves) in a liter of water and gently spray the strained garlic water on the leaves (thorough wetting by a spray bottle). Aphids quickly die in garlic water.